Tag Archives: google

A month ago I started talking to the YouTube specialists about monetizing my YouTube videos. I thought I had made some progress even though I was being shuffled between different customer service managers for several weeks. Today I got my revised and same answer.

So I hipped Adam to my previous history of “violations.”

AND that did it.

He viewed three of the posts about my past problems with AdSense.

And then sent this response. Um, thanks Adam.

And while I asked Adam, “Why?” I’m pretty sure I’ve heard the last from the YouTube Team.

I’ve finished my run at getting Google to turn my AdSense account back on. They “detected” some suspicious activity 2.5 years ago while I was in Mexico. Yes, I said, I clicked on my own ads a few times, I was in Mexico, I’d never had AdSense turned on. I didn’t know about the Publisher’s Extension that allows you to click on your own ads without breaking the law. The Google Law.

I’m done with them. After 6 appeals, where I gave them all of my click data from Google Analytics, and I gave them my own capture of the analytics from the mysterious period on Dec. 24, when I had a surge in click activity to my site overall. But it was a hit post, not fraud.

The same letter, all six times. We’ve thoroughly reviewed your account and determined you are still fkd. And we’re not going to tell you why we think you’re a fraudster, because that would reveal too much about the fkin magic that is our business.

It was odd, when I asked a Director I know at Google to ask about my site. He said, “Those AdSense people don’t respond to me either. I tried. They tell me to take a hike too.”

So the King Google has killed my ideas and hopes and activities related to building an audience and some clickstream income. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t going to be much money. Even with my biggest month ever, 100,000 reads in August 2015, I probably stood to make about $15. Woo hoo. So what’s the big deal? Why do I care so much?

I hate to say this, because when I hear it coming from someone else, it makes me roll my eyes, but… It was the principle of the thing. I did nothing wrong. I admitted not understanding the system. And Google had about $12 at risk, total. And I gave them all the data I had, all data they already had, since my tracking and analytics were all empowered by Google. And nothing. And nothing again. And even 2.5 years later, with some history between us, longevity, honesty, and nothing. We’ve reviewed your account and cannot reinstate your participation at this time. (Or ever, they should’ve said.)

That’s one more reason I use AD Block. And why even though I love G-Mail, I’m blocking ads there as well. The biggest change I’ve made recently is shifting my primary search engine from Google to Duck Duck Go. The coolest part is DDG does not track your searches or keep cookies on your activities. (Though I even use cookie eaters with DDG.) And the results are much cleaner and simpler.

Here’s my DDG results page on “Google AdSense.”

The results are a lot cleaner, with no ads. And they are not filtered by my previous searches or data from some demographic marketing database.

Yes, Google still owns my email system, my voice mail system, my “docs,” hangouts, analytics, and calendar, but hey… I can take a few things back. Occasionally I have to actually pull up Google.com if I don’t get enough results from DDG. But that happens once a week.

Give it a try. The switch is simple, and even if you don’t use AD Block or Privacy Badger, you’re going to have a better search experience. It will actually be search results and not 55% ADS – 45% RESULTS like Google.

It’s time we pull some of our data back from the Alphabet big beast. Their slogan, do no evil, doesn’t really seem to be holding up under the globalization and shareholder pressures.

It’s been over two years since you killed my hopes and dreams of making this website a source of mailbox money. I’ve been working hard for six years, doing everything by the book, writing, promoting, and doing social media along with everyone else. Don’t you think it’s time you UNFREEZE my account?

A few things I learned, even from a week of AdSense participation.

It’s not much money.

I started thinking about clicks rather than what was important to write about.

I sort of started whoring myself out.

Maybe I have more authority and credit for NOT selling ads on this site.

Still I think we could do some good work together. I’ve given you all of my stats. (Google Analytics) I’ve shown you my traffic and clicks for the week in question, when I was in MEXICO, btw. I’ve pleaded my case five times so far and gotten only your sad form letter.

Please reconsider our breakup. It makes both of us look bad. You, because you don’t respond as a human but only as a NO-BOT. Me, because as I’m trying to show businesses and individuals how to use social media, I have been timed-out by Google. It just looks bad.

MY PROMISE TO YOU:

I promise I will never click on a link without the Publishers Extension installed and active.

I promise I will never use spammy techniques to try and drive clicks.

I promise I will never use click-bots or overseas spammers to flood my account or your clickstream.

Give me a chance. What do you say? I know I don’t have much traffic, and I know no human will probably read my request for reinstatement, but I’m doing the best I can to get your attention.

Thank You,

John McElhenney

PS: I promise to quit referring to you as King Google and using pictures of the Death Star to represent you.

THE FINAL ANSWER:

Pretty much the same answer I got the last 5 times I appealed their ruling. See Denied By Google. And I guess today, this is the end of this saga. I’ll move along now and keep my integrity.

Update 9/16/15: While G+ social reach value seems to have tanked, it looks like people are still visiting and using the site.

Part of the challenge of social media marketing is figuring out where to put your time. We could work all social networks with a similar intensity, but we’d be wasting a lot of cycles on networks that offer very little return. Today, G+ and StumbleUpon join my list of dead networks.

It’s official. I’m taking G+ and StumbleUpon off my little social sharing tiles on the bottom of all of my websites. They are now officially distractions. The are the 2nd and 3rd casualties of the modern social era. (Digg is Dead) It seems Google didn’t believe in Plus when it didn’t seem to be taking over Facebook. And StumbleUpon changed their logo and their sharing model in such a way that nobody cared any more.

Those numbers are from three different websites. And I can say, officially:

Google Plus is dead to me.

StumbleUpon is dead to me.

I just wanted you to know. My revised sharing footer looks like this.

I’m still going to keep the G+ link in my signature. Not sure why, but I’ve worked hard to gain a G+ audience and views on my profile… Oh well.

We know click fraud is a problem for advertisers. So it’s no wonder that Google keeps a firm lock on all that goes in and out of Google AdSense. The problem comes up, when King Google suspects you of click fraud, or suspects your account of benefiting from click fraud. They will put down the hammer on your account.

The bigger problem is trying to convince them that you didn’t to anything wrong. They simply don’t care. I have appealed a ruling two years ago, to no avail. I’ve gotten form letters every time. The letters say, “You can continue to appeal this, but we probably won’t even read your future messages.” Seriously, they tell you your efforts are futile before you even begin. Being the social media guy that I am, I have tried repeatedly to get an answer, to provide proof, Google Analytics data, everything. Same result. NADA.

There it is, right there. I am in “Good standing” with regards to copyright, but my Monetization “has been disabled due to invalid click activity. Google’s Click Fraud Learn more Page.” Good luck, learning more. It’s basically “speak to the hand and we’ll get back to you if we want to.” They don’t, they won’t and for two years they have ignored over 10 emails WITH attachements. Nothing but the form letter in return. Today, I get to start over with my YouTube channel, which obviously was disabled due to the earlier “click fraud” charge that has nothing to do with YouTube but with my Adwords account.

I am one of the reasons social media sucks.
– anonymous digital marketer

Well, it was announced several months ago. Google Plus is going away. The features (Photos) for example will be rolling out in separate app/services as the overall functionality of G+ will be more like your Google Profile rather than a social or sharing network. And the results could not have been any more dramatic. Here are my referral stats for the first half of 2015 to yesterday.

Even my Twitter referrals (t.co) are down, but I have been less active in 2015 in promoting Uber.la as I focused a bit more on a client’s work over my own. (Typical consultant behavior.)

But G+ is nowhere to be found!

And while it was never a big driver, it was well worth the while to cross promote on G+ at least as often as I published. Today the value of referrals from G+ is about as valuable as the ever-dropping StumbleUpon. Not much. Less than 1%. A lot less. I mean if Pinterest is driving more traffic to my tech marketing blog, well, something is wrong with the state of referrals online.

It wouldn’t be so painful if I hadn’t spent so much time building my Google Plus audience. They are still there, it’s just the platform has become a ghost town. Discussions have dropped to 1 post out of a 100, as everyone puts their time towards social networks that return referrals for the effort. What did we get so wrong? I have been promoting, hyping, providing numbers and tips on G+ since the launch. Why Google, why did you abandon the only alternative to Facebook that even had a chance?

It’s historical that Google tries to build and launch a ton of new technologies. Some will be hits, others (WAVE – which I loved, BUZZ, etc.) will be discontinued with the REVENUE targets are not met. And maybe that’s what happened to G+. The revenue opportunities were no where in sight. As the platform failed to catch fire with consumers (mainly techies and photographers have occupied G+) Google failed to see the long-term value in continuing the effort.

Google could have done things much differently. They could’ve tried to mount a Facebook-killer app. But that’s not what G+ was about. Perhaps the experiment of Google Plus was as mysterious at it’s branding and name. Do you call it Google Plus, Google+, or G+, or just Plus? They never quite decided and never quite got the value proposition right for the masses. A lot of us tried to migrate our “friends” to G+, but whenever anything interesting would happen, we’d flock back to FB to see what the conversation was. G+ was a promotional tool, that’s it.

Where do we go from here?

More conscious use of Facebook is in order.

Still seeking the next platform/social network.

Embrace the pieces of G+ that you loved as they are rolled out under their own flags. (Photos, Hangouts, are the first).

Be more social overall.

Continue to explore the “social” aspects of LinkedIn, without trying to turn it into a casual, picture sharing, cat joke, platform.

Don’t mourn the passing of G+. Celebrate the vacuum that has been created once again for something BETTER than Facebook. The problem with all the current alternatives is revenue. When ELLO announced that they would be the ad-free Facebook everyone was excited but the business model was impossible from the start. When TSU started everyone was excited getting compensated for generating great content, except the model never really took off as a social network, but more like a content promotional platform.

The future ahead will continue to be dominated by Facebook and Twitter. Both of which make enormous mistakes every business cycle as they strive for profits over people. But there is hope. Start a blog. Generate your own community. And use Facebook groups (public and private) to build communication networks that don’t rely on advertising or newsfeed algorithms to be successful.

To say I’m a little disappointed that Google hasn’t made a real run at building the Facebook killer app in Google Plus would be an understatement that stretches across the four plus years since it was launched. We need a new social platform. Facebook is sinking as a connection tool, as the ads and promoted content drowns out any chance of meaningful conversation. That’s what social media is about, was about, conversation. And Facebook is about 5% conversation and about 95% advertising. That’s not a social network, that’s an advertising network.

So I ran some numbers for my 2014 referrals from Google Plus on three different blogs. And I’ve put some work into growing my G+ account. And I’ve garnered a following of 3,300. Not all that powerful, considering the effort I’ve made. And in spite of PLUSSING every single post I’ve made on all three blogs, my results speak for themselves.

The only stat that’s even remotely interesting is for the third blog, this one. But 176 referrals after a year’s worth of Plussing? That’s awful. Still it’s my #5 referrer. But this blog, is very tech heavy. And that’s what you’ll notice if you spend any time on G+. There are three main types of content (thus users) on G+. Here’s my informal demographic breakdown of G+ users and content.

(50%) Social media workers/enthusiasts/evangelists. I was a G+ pitch-man. I really wanted it to go.

(30%) Photo sharing. For some reason people LOVE photos on G+. And if you dig animated gifs (I hate them and use an extension to stop them from playing at all.) G+ is loaded with them.

(5%) Social sharing purely for reach and SEO-potential.

(3%) General social sharing. (People trying to establish communities and conversations.)

(2%) Scammers, MLMarketers, Snake-oil Salesmen.

The good news: If you’re a tech marketer or photographer G+ is probably a good place for you to hang out. But you’ll be speaking to the choir and not really reaching anyone outside this demographic. It’s a nice bubble if that’s where your ambitions point.

The bad news: For everything else, G+ is just another social platform. Yes, it performs better than Pinterest or Instagram, but putting a strategy around G+ these days, sounds like a better idea than it really is in execution. If you’re goal is reach and referrals.

What’s the upside?

If Google really wanted to make a go of it, they could pour actual development money at G+. But it’s not that essential to their business model. From wikipedia: “Google has described Google+ as a “social layer” that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not simply a social networking website, but also an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its owner/author.“

Unfortunately they killed “authorship” and have done an awful job of building and promoting G+. The initial ads seemed to hint at the good life ahead if you built your family network on G+. Then Google tried force-feeding it to us by requiring a G+ account to comment on YouTube videos and other social platforms. That backfired and created more ill-will than warm fuzzies.

We know Facebook sucks. We’re begging for someone to come up with a new model for social sharing not driven by advertising. (See Ello and Tsu.) But so far, they’ve been disappointments in all aspects of becoming the next social platform.

What is it? What do we need? How can we jump ship from Facebook, and give Zuck the big middle finger for good?

A long time ago, when I was just starting out on this blog, in 2009, I wrote a cocky little piece about the newly discovered Social Media Formula. But the concept still holds true, so I’ll revisit the idea for a second. Of course there’s a t-shirt.

Facebook has been the platform for all of us. Sure the kids today are using Instagram and Snapchat. But they see each other everyday at school. Social media is about building a conversation and community when you are no longer able or willing to be “with” each other most of the time. On Facebook this connective aspect of social media is being killed. And Zuck and Co. care more about shareholder value and the availability of the next $100,000+ exotic car for their collections. The conversation is dying on Facebook.

The social media relevance test.

ONE – POPULAR CULTURE: Post a simple question on your Facebook page. Something like: BEST MOVIE YOU SAW IN 2014? Or U2 vs Coldplay, Go! And then wait to see how many responses you get. A couple years ago you could expect 30 – 50% of your connected friends to see your question and about 10% of those people to answer. Today you’ll have to PAY to promote your question’s reach over about 3 – 5%. And the responses will come from the same 10 people who constantly interact with you on Facebook. Those are the people who make up your allotted 3%.

TWO – POLITICAL DISCUSSION OR RANT: Now post something political. You can go middle of the road or fire things up a bit with something controversial. Now what’s your response rate?

THREE – SHARE SOMETHING WITH ME: Random question for advice. Here’s the real value/test of the purely social aspect of social media. “Leaving Austin, what are the top things my family must see before we depart this Summer?”

I suppose the real test will be doing this same set of questions on G+. But it doesn’t even compute for me. I’ll do it. And with over 3,000 followers vs. 300 “friends” I’m already certain of the lack of response on G+. My hope is that I will be surprised by the engagement on Facebook, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m going to do this test on my own, over the next week and report back here with the results. I’d love to hear from you about your NETWORK and how you ARE or ARE NOT getting your “social” needs met on Facebook or any other network.

Facebook, it’s all in how you use it or don’t.

Facebook’s an easy target for our online ire. I do my share of bitching and moaning about Zuck and Co. and all they do to make Facebook a worse social platform. Of course, I also complain about how they make it a worse business platform as well. Things have improved on the business side and continued to degrade on the social side. Today if you post a question to your wall, here’s what you’re likely to get: 5% of your fans will even see your post, 1% of them will respond, the same 5 people you actually have conversations with on Facebook, will again be the only people you have conversations with on Facebook.

So what’s the problem? Or are we all whining about progress and change?

The shift happened before Facebook’s IPO, but it has accelerated with a board-driven intensity since the shareholders took the reigns. The major loses on Facebook today are reach and interaction. And those two features are what social is built on. When you begin trading either or both of those qualities of a social network for money, you’re poisoning the well at the source. Without social there is no Facebook. And we’re almost to the tipping point.

The two things that are saving Facebook’s ass right now is 1. there’s nothing better, yet; 2. the kids are flocking to Instagram instead and Facebook owns Instagram. And mark my words, the executive branch is trying to figure out how to make their $1 billion dollar investment in Instagram pay off, and when they do, the reach and social aspects will be the first to go.

Let’s talk about the two pivotal elements that Facebook’s profit-minded leadership are crushing in their quest for profits.

Reach.

A lot has been written about Facebook’s reach issue. On one side, the apologists argue that “you’re friends are simply posting too much content, you could never see it all. So we’re optimizing the experience for you. We’re shaping your social news feed for you. See, it’s a benefit.” And then they break that idea with a little social experiment where they play with shaping your mood based on what updates they show you. It’s all ha ha funny, until you realize this is what they are doing with your newsfeed already.

Today Facebook shows you between 3% – 7% of your friends updates. And even if you select the “show me everything” option, you’re not going to get it. With the tiny tweak of an algorithm, Facebook could change the purity of your social connection, like nitrous oxide: they could lower your social feed to 1% and stuff it full of brand messages, posts, and sponsored ads, or they could dial your experience up to 20% purity and really start up a conversation again. It’s pretty clear which way we’re headed.

And the problem with over all reach is deeper then Zuck’s algorithm. What’s happening is people are no longer connecting via Facebook. Sure we’ll go on to check-in, see how our cousins are doing in Maine, but we’re no longer really interacting with more than 5 – 10 of our “friends.” The conversation, the community, and the family aspect of Facebook has all but been choked to death by the algorithm and ads. There are some strategies to dial back your brand likes, and stop liking posts that you really don’t care about, but they have a marginal effect on your experience. You simply can’t move your own purity needle above the set point, say an average of 5%.

Interaction.

The result of the diminished reach on Facebook is the quality of the conversation is dying. Those questions to friends used to be one of the great ways to get people to delurk (actually post something rather than just read) and interact with you. A simple question to your friends could provide 20 – 30 comments of joy or angst. But what they provided was the feeling of community. The idea that you were actually socializing with your friends. Today the same 5 – 10 (and boy I love them) friends comment on any given question. That’s it. Out of say, 700 friends I’ve got 10 who actually interact.

Of course we’re too busy to interact. Certainly we’re on Facebook to see the new offers from Progressive Insurance or the click-bait posts from Buzzfeed meant to entertain us to death. Facebook is 95% entertainment and ads today. And just as I turned off my television for good a few years ago, people are starting to turn off and tune out of Facebook. And even the people who are active users are commenting less and less. You know why? Because we know that even a comment these days, has the potential to add demographic data to our marketing file. Yep, every comment, every instant message, every post, is added to your marketing profile and sold to the highest bidder.

And you can’t fully grasp how far your marketing profile goes. They know where you’re going to eat for lunch at least 50% of the time next week. And yes, today, it’s “anonymous” but it’s only marginally disconnected from your credit score or banking and insurance information. When one of the big three credit bureaus purchased one of the top data marketing research firms, we learned where all this was going. Read the book Click, you’ll understand just how deep your profile goes.

Now that Facebook is actively selling your demographic and preferential data to outside marketing firms, you’re Facebook profiled punch card can follow you all across the web. Ever notice how that damn Geico lizard starts showing up everywhere, once you click on an ad. That’s called Re-Marketing. And it means that once you’ve indicated any interest at all in an advertiser, they can flag you and re-market to you on other websites, until their budget or interest in you as a consumer wains.

What’s the way forward?

Probably the only way forward for Facebook will come when some mass exodus happens for another network. And today, if Google can’t crack the code (with Google Plus) how do you expect some start-up like Ello to have the clout or innovation to put a dent in Facebook’s growth curve? Perhaps some new idea like Instagram or Snapchat will come along and begin the process, and the billion dollar cash cow will come along and buy them out of existence or into the fold. Facebook in this decade is becoming the Microsoft of the 90’s. They stalk and kill any threatening technology or platform. The minute Ello takes off, Zuck and Co. will simply buy them. Until then, they’re happy to watch startups do their R and D.

But we’re not doomed. We’ve just got to think about our social experience a little differently. As a user of Facebook I have a few tools at my disposal that help my overall experience. They don’t alter my feed much, because Facebook still has the master control, but they kill a good percentage of the Geicos, Progressives, and All States from my feed and eliminate them completely from my right side panels. (I’ll provide my tool links at the end.)

AND we’ve got to use Facebook differently if we are seeking community again. If you want to find interactions on Facebook rather than Ads you’re going to have to work for it a bit. Facebook’s not going to help your friends show up on your wall, so you’ve got to dive back into the “friends” tab and go see what they’ve been up to. Perhaps this is more like real life, now Facebook is the tickler. How many times have you looked back over your “friends” on Facebook? This is the new experience. If I want connections I have to go looking for them. If I want to see my old high school girlfriend’s posts I’m going to have to click on her profile and go read her wall. It’s all still there, but Facebook just isn’t showing it to you.

If we can continue to encourage people to post and use Facebook, they will continue to share the story of their lives. As friends we can then go check-in with them from time to time. Even if that check-in doesn’t leave a footprint, we can see how someone else’s life is going. This of course is if they haven’t already given up on Facebook all together.

Use Facebook differently. Here’s my subversive plan to take back my own Facebook experience.

Use Adblock and Privacy Badger to eliminate as much tracking and advertising information from my profile.

Delete all LIKES of superfluous brands. (I have never “liked” Walmart, but you’d be surprised how many people have, and McDonald’s and Ford, and Skyy Vodka.) Kill ’em, they are only putting things in your feed as advertisments. If you no longer LIKE them they lose the thread that allows them to PAY to be in your wall. You’ll notice a quieter news feed right away.

Seek out friends by going to their profiles. Comment on something they’ve said. Like some of their pictures or posts. By Liking and Commenting you are adding them to Facebook’s algorithm again. The more you like and interact the more likely they are to get past the Zuck filter and show up in your newsfeed.

Keep trying other networks and services. See if you can strike up a conversation on G+ or Ello. Try the newest social media network. See if you can find that community somewhere else.

Contribute to the social collective. I find all of my viral videos and funny memes through Facebook. Cat pictures: Facebook. Top Vines: Facebook. That’s the one thing I really missed when I took the 99 days off, the community curation of good content. I missed seeing my wild-ass friends promoting Fox News as news. I missed being trolled by a high school “friend” for my post about global warming. I missed seeing the random cartoon, news story, meme, think piece, that was shared by my collective mind: friends.

If Facebook continues to devalue the “friends” they are going to become the next Microsoft. Sure their software runs on most of the computers in the world, but what have they done right in the last 10 years? Facebook is a long way from becoming a ghost town, it’s just currently more like a superhighway littered with billboards. We’d really like it to be a cosy cafe where we could enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation with a friend or to.

Each time I tell this story I get more frustrated. I mean, I probably could’ve made at least $1,ooo by now, two years after Google cancelled my AdSense account and threw my hopes and dreams for advertising glory and the holy grail MONETIZATION. Let’s recap:

About this time last year (maybe a few weeks into December) my brother had a heart attack in Mexico. And days after Google approved my AdSense account I was in the airport heading to Puerto Vallarta to be with my family as we rallied together in and around the local hospital. So, even as I was struggling with a family crisis and trying to keep my consulting practice alive, I was also plugging in the AdSense AD UNITS on this very site for the first time. (My brother’s fine, btw, thanks for asking.)

Some nights we hung out as a family, other nights we all retreated into our hotel rooms to sleep or distract ourselves with work and entertainment. I was often trying to catch up in the evenings so my two main clients didn’t freak out.

In these odd hours I would also update and check on my site, this site. And I guess that’s where my problem with Google AdSense began.

As I was installing and checking my work, I DID (I admit this) click on my ADS about 10 times. This was over the course of two days. And I’m sure this “Mexico” activity showed up as an anomaly to the Google Click-Fraud Police. I understand that. What I didn’t understand is that I was about to be disconnected from the mothership and tossed into the offender penalty box, never to be heard from again. You think I’m being dramatic. But you’ll understand my gripe better in a minute.

When I got back home to the US for a quick client check-in and some family time with my kids I learned that Google had suspended my AdSense account. I believe I had a revenue due amount of about $1.02. I appealed. I shared my clickstream and Google Analytics in a report to the authorities asking for forgiveness. And in this time, I learned there was a Google Chrome Extension for publishers that allows you to click on your ads without triggering the alarm. But I hadn’t discovered this magical tool before my unexpected trip to Mexico. Of course, now it just showed “account disabled,” but I suppose we could’ve avoided this whole unfortunate situation had I read the Fine Print. (I’d give you the link, but to hell with them.)

And thus my struggle began and ended with the form letter from King Google. “We’re sorry…” And two years later I’m still working to “monetize” but it appears that’s going to be through publishing books and not through advertising. I hope Amazon treats me with a bit more compassion and human interaction. I’m not sure who’s up in the Google AdSense Click-Fraud Enforcement Division, but they’ve never given me any kind of human response. Just the form letter.

“Speak to the hand. Try again if you like, but we may ignore your future requests. Thanks. Love, Google.”

I’m starting to get sucked back into the vortex of time-wasting, Facebook. I’ve taken a few evasive measures. As Facebook’s iPhone app kept asking me to download and start using FB Messenger, I did one better, I just killed the FB app from my phone. And now when I realized I clicked a scroll down button on Facebook, I’m thinking of inflicting a penalty. I don’t want to be back on Facebook, BUT… If you work in digital marketing you know that Facebook is still pretty important.

Even if you are not advertising on Facebook, as a business, your “signals” are telling Facebook and all it’s info-scribers what kinds of things you are promoting and publishing. And Google is known to use Likes, Shares, and Comments on Facebook to determine some of the social relevance. Facebook still carries a lot of weight in marketing, even if you’re not paying to show your pages to your fans.

And just so we’re on the same page here, part of the problem that everyone seems to misunderstand is this: Facebook is an advertising platform not a social network. It was a social network. It’s now more like a TV show you’re addicted to, even when you know it’s bad for you and a waste of time. When you’re on Facebook what other things could you be doing. It’s like your mom yelling at you, “You could go outside, for goodness sake.”

But Facebook is part of my life as a marketer. And from time to time I even have to turn off my AdBlock extension and see the awful ads on Facebook. This only happens when I’m actually building ads for clients. See, you can’t see the ones you are building if you’re using AdBlock. (grin) But when I open Facebook and AdBlock is paused I’m actually even more repulsed. And yes, I get the irony, that I actually build some of those ads for a living. Still I don’t have to love everything I do.

What I want to keep about Facebook.

Chit chat, ass grabbing, political pontificating, kid pics, and cats. (Okay, there are some dog pics that are as funny as the cat ones, but… Cats!)

Sharing a bit of my incidental non-sequiter world. (A few of these are already connected and post on my behalf: Instagram, Shazam) And some I just like to put up like, “Man this coffee is smokin today, and the ACDC is making everything go just a little bit faster and harder today.”

Actually communication with a few FB friends who like the messaging

Outreach to potential influencers on behalf of my clients

Building influencer communities for social media coordination and execution (everyone’s on Facebook, and the private groups work pretty well.)

What I want to kill about Facebook.

Ads, ads, ads.

Necessary paid reach to get my top friends to see what incidental stuff I’m saying.

Give me back my newsfeed. (Now so worthless I just stop using it at all.)

Big brother marketing data and demographic collection (you can do things to fight the data tracking on Facebook, but now that they are selling their bio-data you’ll see more not less remarketing slush as you travel around the web. Unless of course you use AdBlock.

And maybe that’s the point. We’d like a more personal and focused social network, but who’s going to pay for it without ads. The new buzz site is ello.com but they’ve been having some problems lately. How can they possibly build a stable platform and grow with any success after the investment money runs out. Would you pay for an ad-free user controlled experience on Facebook?

Hmm, we’re in quit a conundrum. We want our social media to be un-corporate and yet we are unwilling to pay for it. Of course, the net has primarily been based on the freemium model. And how hypocritical that I would be a digital marketer AND complain about digital marketing. And how can I use AdBlocker, it’s like an anti-marketing service?

But I’m in digital marketing not advertising. There’s a difference. I believe that good content (well-written, informative, helpful) can bring in more potential business than ads. By giving your customers good intelligence they will consider you when they are in the need of the types of services you provide. But social and content marketing is a little squishy. The numbers are harder to track than a pure click-to-buy model. But even if all the ads were blocked, and all the “native advertising” were turned off (Native Advertising: ads disguised as content) there would still be good content. That’s the kind of marketing I’m involved in.

Social might be one of the channels for distribution, but the content is king. Google thinks so as well. But again, I’m off track a bit. We need a place to hangout online, and today Facebook is the local town square. I prefer the real town square (in our case a trail around a lake) to a virtual one, but we need places to communicate and socialize online. Ello might succeed if they can get the formula right. Google+ might work if they’d really put some money and innovation behind it. But Google is fine with Facebook doing what it does. G+ is a much bigger play.

After 99 Days off I’ve come back to Facebook, but only about 20% of me. I’m still going to give myself a mental electric shock when I notice I’m “browsing” Facebook. And if I want to check-in on someone I’ll either call them, or go to their Facebook page with AdBlock fully engaged. I’m back, but only as a ghost of my former self.

What I learned is that I do enjoy some of the social aspects of social media. While I did get a lot of connection and activity on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Plus while I was off Facebook, there is still no substitute. Even as bad as it is, Facebook (with AdBlock on) is pretty good. I hate to admit that. But I didn’t find anything better. It’s still a time suck, but if you’re in need of some light entertainment, Facebook is better than reality TV.